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| Serena Williams will retire from professional tennis. |
One of the world's greatest tennis players is retiring.
Serena Williams wrote in Vogue that after she plays the U.S. Open, she will retire from the game. The 40-year old is an all-time great. Serena will walk away from the sport with 23 Grand Slam titles – the most in the Open Era and second most all-time behind Margaret Court. She will get one more chance to tie the court’s record. She lost in the first round of Wimbledon earlier in the summer.
A must read. https://t.co/NSWDGHzsXK
— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) August 9, 2022
Youngest. Majority owner status. Go Olympia https://t.co/iri4tiFOkY
— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) August 4, 2022
"I’ve been reluctant to admit to myself or anyone else that I have to move on from playing tennis. Alexis, my husband, and I have hardly talked about it; it’s like a taboo topic," Williams wrote in Vogue.
"I can’t even have this conversation with my mom and dad. It’s like it’s not real until you say it out loud. It comes up, I get an uncomfortable lump in my throat, and I start to cry. The only person I’ve really gone there with is my therapist! One thing I’m not going to do is sugarcoat this. I know that a lot of people are excited about and look forward to retiring, and I really wish I felt that way.
Williams admitted in the essay that there was no "happiness" in making the announcement, but she was ready for "what’s next."
"There is no happiness in this topic for me," she wrote. "I know it’s not the usual thing to say, but I feel a great deal of pain. It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I hate it. I hate that I have to be at this crossroads. I keep saying to myself, I wish it could be easy for me, but it’s not. I’m torn: I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next."
Of the record, Williams wrote she’d be "lying" if she didn’t say she wanted to get to court’s record.
"I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that record. Obviously I do. But day to day, I’m really not thinking about her. If I’m in a grand slam final, then yes, I am thinking about that record. Maybe I thought about it too much, and that didn’t help. The way I see it, I should have had 30-plus grand slams," she added.
But she wrote that after all the things she went through in and after childbirth, she would choose building her family over building her tennis resume.
Williams sought the advice of Tiger Woods, who has tried to play through the back end of his career in the middle of recovering from a severe leg injury. She said Woods told her, "Serena, what if you just gave it two weeks? You don’t have to commit to anything. You just go out on the court every day for two weeks and give it your all and see what happens,"
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| Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian with daughter Alexis Ohanian, Jr. |
Williams wrote she gave it a month before picking up a racket again and eventually made it back to Wimbledon.
"Unfortunately I wasn’t ready to win Wimbledon this year. And I don’t know if I will be ready to win New York. But I’m going to try," Williams wrote. "And the lead-up tournaments will be fun. I know there’s a fan fantasy that I might have tied Margaret that day in London, then maybe beat her record in New York, and then at the trophy ceremony say, ‘See ya!’ I get that. It’s a good fantasy. But I’m not looking for some ceremonial, final on-court moment. I’m terrible at goodbyes, the world’s worst. But please know that I am more grateful for you than I can ever express in words. You have carried me to so many wins and so many trophies. I’m going to miss that version of me, that girl who played tennis. And I’m going to miss you."
The U.S. Open is set to begin on Aug. 29 and end on Sept. 11.
Williams was born in 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan to Oracene Price and Richard Williams. She is the youngest of Price's five daughters: half-sisters Yetunde, Lyndrea, and Isha Price, and full older sister Venus. She also has at least seven paternal half-siblings. When the children were young, the family moved to Compton, California, where she started playing tennis at age four.
Along with her older sister Venus, Serena Williams was coached by her parents. Turning professional in 1995, she won her first major singles title at the 1999 US Open. From the 2002 French Open to the 2003 Australian Open, she was dominant, winning all four major singles titles (each time over Venus in the final) to achieve a non-calendar year Grand Slam and the career Grand Slam, known as the "Serena Slam". The next few years saw her claim two more singles majors, but suffer from injury and decline in form. Beginning in 2007, however, she gradually returned to form despite continued injuries, retaking the world No. 1 singles ranking. Beginning at the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, Williams returned to dominance, claiming Olympic gold and becoming the first tennis player to achieve a Career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles. She won eight out of thirteen singles majors, including all four in a row from 2014–15 to achieve a second "Serena Slam". At the 2017 Australian Open, she won her 23rd major singles title, surpassing Steffi Graf's Open Era record. She then took a break from professional tennis after becoming pregnant, and has reached four major finals since returning to play.
Williams has also won 14 major women's doubles titles, all with her sister Venus, and the pair are unbeaten in Grand Slam doubles finals. This includes a non-calendar year Grand Slam between the 2009 Wimbledon Championships and the 2010 French Open, which granted the sisters the doubles world No. 1 ranking. She has won four Olympic gold medals, three in women's doubles — an all-time joint record shared with her sister. She has also won two major mixed doubles titles, both in 1998.
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| Serena and Venus are two of the greatest tennis players of all-time. |
Williams is widely considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. The arrival of the Williams sisters has been credited with ushering in a new era of power and athleticism on the women's professional tennis tour. Serena holds the most combined major titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles among active players, with 39: 23 in singles, 14 in women's doubles, and two in mixed doubles. She is joint-third on the all-time list and second in the Open Era for total major titles. She is the most recent woman to simultaneously hold all four major singles titles (2002–03 and 2014–15), and the most recent woman to win the Surface Slam (major titles on hard, clay and grass courts in the same calendar year), doing so in 2015. She is also, with Venus, the most recent player to have simultaneously held all four major women's doubles titles (2009–10).
Williams was the world's highest paid woman athlete in 2016, earning almost $29 million. She repeated this feat in 2017 when she was the only woman on Forbes' list of the 100 highest-paid athletes, with $27 million in prize money and endorsements. She has won the Laureus Sportswoman of the Year award four times (2003, 2010, 2016, 2018), and in December 2015 was named Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated magazine. In 2021, she was ranked 28th on Forbes' World's Highest-Paid Athletes list. She is the highest-earning woman athlete of all time.
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